This is a book of personality/social psychology; a field that has overlapping concerns with psychoanalysis, but is clearly not identical with it. The book deals with the application of attachment theory to the study of adult relationships. Its purpose is twofold: First, it reports and integrates recent theoretical and empirical advances in the area of adult attachment. Second, it suggests promising directions for future research.

The central concern of the volume, “attachment theory and close relationships”, is of great psychoanalytic interest. All psychoanalytic theories have, from our beginning, focused on relationships. It is clear that attachment theory, which was formulated through John Bowlby's ideas, has been a crucial stimulant for further clinical interest and theoretical development.

Although social psychology overlaps, it is also significantly different from